TIAA-CREF Boosts 7 Community Banks' Lending Line With $49M Deposit

NEW YORK, NY—TIAA-CREF, a major national and international real estate developer and financier, announced today it has more than doubled its Community Bank Deposit Investment Program to $49 million of FDIC insured deposits.

The announcement marks the first surge in the private lending pipeline in over a year, according to industry sources. .

TIAA-CREF is placing its first $22 million in deposits with Shorebank of Chicago and Shorebank Pacific of Ilwaco, WA, regarded as the first and largest community development bank in the U.S.

TIAA-CREF also added six additional community banks into the program. They are Carver Federal Savings (New York, NY); City First Bank of DC; City National Bank of NJ (Newark, NJ); Mechanics and Farmers Bank (Durham, NC); Native American Bank (Denver, CO); and New Resource Bank (San Francisco, CA).

“Even in the current economic environment, many community banks continue to thrive as they often have innovative solutions to help borrowers,” says Roger W. Ferguson, Jr., (top right photo)President and CEO of TIAA-CREF.

“Under the direction of our Global Social and Community Investment Department, TIAA-CREF continues to make deposits in some of the country’s leading community banks as a small step towards helping unthaw the credit crisis in some underserved markets while seeking to earn competitive rates of return on our investments.”

Scott J. Budde, (middle left photo) managing director and head of TIAA-CREF's Social & Community Investment Department, says “Community and proactive social investing is a growing part of TIAA-CREF’s comprehensive approach to socially responsible investing.

“We focus on opportunities where we have specialized expertise, as well as the ability to invest effectively and with the greatest possible impact from both a financial and social perspective.
“ In doing so, we often collaborate with like-minded investors, foundations and development banks to seek market-based approaches that address critical social and environmental needs.”

Budde said that in selecting the seven institutions, TIAA-CREF worked closely with both the Calvert Foundation and the National Community Investment Fund (NCIF) to identify efficient institutions that needed funds at competitive rates in underserved geographic and business markets.

"Native American Bank is very pleased to have received a CDARS deposit from TIAA-CREF, says David M. Gilman, (middle right photo) president and CEO of Native American Bank. “The deposit provides a safe and sound investment for TIAA-CREF and supports Native American Bank in its mission of providing loans to assist Native American communities."

The funding source for the investments is assets in the TIAA General Account. The $49 million in deposits is fully insured by the FDIC through the Certificate of Deposit Account Registration Service (CDARS) of Promontory Interfinancial Network of Washington, DC.

TIAA-CREF’s Social & Community Investing department was created in May 2006 to focus on a series of investment programs and oversee the screening methodology used by the CREF Social Choice and the TIAA-CREF Social Choice Equity Funds.

The Native American Bank was formed in 2001 as the first national bank aimed to serve the Native population of America and Alaska.

NAB is owned by a collection of 26 Tribal Nations, Tribal Enterprises and Alaskan Native Corporations. Over 85% of the loans outstanding are to Native Americans. The bank is planning an extension of the bank into more physical locations in Native communities across America.

CDARS, a service of Promontory Interfinancial Network, was created in 2002 to help small banks compete more effectively with large money centers institutions.

CDARS offers clients up to $50 million in Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, (FDIC) coverage and disperses these deposits among several different banks. Small community banks, like those mentioned above, join the CDARS network to "pool" their $100,000 FDIC coverage limits to attract larger depositors.